Human polyomavirus JC variants in Papua New Guinea and Guam reflect ancient population settlement and viral evolution
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Date
2000
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Microbes and Infection
Abstract
The peopling of the Pacific was a complex sequence of events that is best reconstructed by
reconciling insights from various disciplines. Here we analyze the human polyomavirus JC
(JCV) in Highlanders of Papua New Guinea (PNG), in Austronesian-speaking Tolai people on
the island of New Britain, and in nearby non-Austronesian-speaking Baining people. We also
characterize JCV from the Chamorro of Guam, a Micronesian population. All JCV strains from
PNG and Guam fall within the broad Asian group previously defined in the VP1 gene as Type 2
or Type 7, but the PNG strains were distinct from both genotypes. Among the Chamorro JCV
samples, 8 strains (Guam-1) were like the Type 7 strains found in Southeast Asia, while nine
strains (Guam-2) were distinct from both the mainland strains and most PNG strains. We
identified three JCV variants within Papua New Guinea (PNG-1, PNG-2 and PNG-3), but none
of the Southeast Asian (Type 7) strains. PNG-1 strains were present in all three populations
(Highlanders and the Baining and Tolai of New Britain), but PNG-2 strains were restricted to the
Highlanders. Their relative lack of DNA sequence variation suggests that they arose
comparatively recently. The single PNG-3 strain, identified in an Austronesian-speaking Tolai
individual, was closely related to the Chamorro variants (Guam-2), consistent with a common
Austronesian ancestor. In PNG-2 variants a complex regulatory region mutation inserts a
duplication into a nearby deletion, a change reminiscent of those seen in the brains of progressive
multifocal leukoencephalopathy patients. This is the first instance of a complex JCV
rearrangement circulating in a human population.
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Keywords
Polyomavirus hominis 2, Pacific Islands, JCV
Citation
Ryschkewitsch, C.F., Friedlaender, J.S., Mgone, C.S., Jobes, D.V., Agostini, H.T., Chima, S.C., Alpers, M.P., Koki, G., Yanagihara, R. and Stoner, G.L., 2000. Human polyomavirus JC variants in Papua New Guinea and Guam reflect ancient population settlement and viral evolution. Microbes and Infection, 2(9), pp.987-996.